ARDL Analysis for The Effects of R&D Expenditures on Economic Growth: The Case of Turkey Between 2001-2016

Growth rates are one of the leading performance indicators of countries in global competition. Generally, growth leads to an increase in employment rates. Technological investments have a larger share in growth in developed countries. In developing countries the share of infrastructure investments in growth is higher. Infrastructure investments, while stimulating the economy during the investment period, make a very limited contribution to the economy in the period after the investment is over. Industrial investments, on the other hand, contribute to continuous economic growth as they will sell products to the domestic and foreign markets, especially after the investment period. While growth rates follow a more stable course in economically developed countries, they follow a more volatile course in developing countries. If we examine this situation, the economic, social, political, democratic, legal, etc. of the developed countries. They have sufficient progress in these areas and appear as a safe haven in the global capital markets. With this study, the effects of R&D expenditures, number of researchers, scientific publications and obtained patents on national income between 2001 and 2016 in Turkey were investigated. As a method, ARDL and Granger Causality analysis were used by producing different econometric models. According to the results of the causality analysis, it has been determined that there is a one-way causality from economic growth to patent. When the ARDL analysis was examined, it was revealed that there was a positive and 2.5% relationship between R&D and economic growth. In long-term analyzes, however, significant results could not be obtained between R&D and growth.